Prayer Request

Back in seminary, I was required in a Christian Ethics class to read a book by an author I’d never heard of, a fellow named Richard John Neuhaus. In the years since that first exposure, I’ve been privileged to have read several books and dozens and dozens of articles by one of the foremost American Christian thinkers of the last half century. Father Neuhaus (a former Lutheran minister who converted to Catholicism in 1990) has had a tremendous impact on my thinking, and that of countless others, about the public role of Christian faith. And First Things, the journal of which he has been editor-in-chief since its inception in 1989, has become one of the most important public affairs periodicals in America.

Word has now come from First Things that Father Neuhaus is seriously ill:

So many have asked after the health of our editor-in-chief, Richard John Neuhaus, that it seemed best to post this note on our website.

Fr. Neuhaus is in the hospital here in New York. Over Thanksgiving, he was diagnosed with a serious cancer. The long-term prognosis for this particular cancer is not good, but it is not hopeless, either, and there is a possibility that it will respond to the recommended out-patient chemotherapy treatment.

Unfortunately, over Christmas, he was taken dangerously ill with what seems to be a systemic infection that has left him very weak. Entering the hospital the day after Christmas, he was sedated to lower an elevated heart rate and treatment was begun for the infection. Over the last few days, he has shown some signs of improvement, and there is a reasonable expectation that he will recover from this present illness—sufficiently, we hope, that he will be able to begin the chemotherapy for the cancer.

Fr. Neuhaus is not able at the moment to receive visitors or speak on the telephone or answer his mail, and he has requested that no flowers, candy, or other get-well presents be sent—just your prayers for his quick recovery.

Please be praying for Richard John Neuhaus–he needs it, and we need him.

(Via Stand Firm.)

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